• Huan Cai

    Huan Cai

    Associate Professor of Finance


Biographical Sketch

Specializes in finance, with a particular interest in behavioral economics and corporate finance. Her courses include Financial Accounting, Corporate Finance, Investments, Equity Valuation, and Investment Management Seminar. Her most recent studies examine earnings forecasts of financial analysts and provide evidence of cognitive biases such as confirmation bias and contrast effects. She enjoys combining experiential learning and project-based learning in her classroom to engage students and has been working on teaching research projects such as studies on “Self-Assessment of Academic Performance” in recent years. She has also developed two MOOC courses (Massive Open Online Courses) during the past few years while visiting China, with case studies based on her entrepreneurship experience as a co-founder of a start-up company, Yeejee.com, in the early years. Ph.D., University of Utah; B.A., Tsinghua University in China.

Academic History

  • Ph.D., Department of Finance, University of Utah, 2012.
  • B.A., Department of Finance, Tsinghua University, Beijing, China, 2003.

Areas of Expertise

  • Educational and Cognitive Research
  • Behavioral Finance
  • Contract Theory

Teaching

  • Financial Accounting (ECB 151)
  • Investments (ECB 243)
  • Corporate Finance (ECB 210)
  • Investment Management Seminar (ECB 352)
  • Equity Valuation (ECB 359)
  • Independent Study in Business Plan (ECB 290)
  • Independent Study in CFA Institute Research Challenge (ECB 390)
  • Volunteer Income Tax Assistance (VITA) Program (ECB 510, ECB 515)
  • 2nd faculty member of Traveling Economists in China Seminar (ECB 334)

Selected Publications & Working Papers

"Overconfidence and Inaccurate Self-Assessment: Evidence from Student Grade Estimations", with with Jie Zheng, to be presented in 2025 ASSA Annual Meeting, Session "Economics of Higher Education", Jan. 2025.

"Local and Background Contrast and Assimilation Effects: Evidence in the Estimation of Number", with Linxi Yu and Jie Zheng, 2024.

"To AI or not to AI, to Buy Local or not to Buy Local: A Mathematical Theory of Real Price", with Catherine Xu and Weiyu Xu, May. 2023.

"Confirmation Bias in Analysts’ Response to Consensus Forecasts", with Tong Yao and Xiaodi Zhang, Journal of Behavioral Finance, Nov. 2022.

"Private Conversation Matters: Evidence from Sell-side Analyst Reports after Private Meetings", with Zhen Qi, North American Journal of Economics and Finance, Nov. 2021.

"Contrast Effects: The Phantom of an Analyst's Latest Earnings Forecasts", with Xiaodi Zhang and Jie Zheng, presented in Tsinghua University, Jun. 2021.

Professional Experience

  • Consultant, Guangdong Baicheng Talent Network Co., Ltd., Shantou, China, 2019-2022
  • Consultant, Zhuhai FarWalker Technology Company Ltd., Zhuhai, China, 2018-2022
  • Consultant, Shenzhen Eastern Open Technology Co. Ltd., Shenzhen, China, 2014-2017
  • Co-founder&Acting CFO, Yeejee Network Technology Co. Ltd. (start-up), Shenzhen, China, 2005-2007
  • Actuarial Analyst, CITIC-Prudential Life Insurance Co. Ltd., Guangzhou, China, 2003-2005